Ghosts, Hauntings and Karma: Does What Goes Around Come Around? Part I

In ghost stories, there’s a common trope of cause and effect.  This is because many ghost stories, legends and folk lore have a “teachable moment” aspect.  They’re not just for entertainment, but to warn, and to guide the reader to make good decisions.  Here are some examples:

*If a character noses around too much where he shouldn’t, despite hints and warnings, he’s bound to encounter a ghost or worse.   This is also referent to perceived perils of the paranormal.

*If a character does evil to others, it usually comes back to “haunt” him.

*If a character’s sixth sense warns him to be cautious, and he isn’t – he’ll regret it.

Blame, guilt, shame can haunt as effectively as spirits of the departed, and may even manifest as ghosts.  Even if these feelings don’t wear a ghostly mantle, they can relentlessly haunt people who do not “exorcise” or deal with them and work towards emotional and spiritual health and wholeness.

Bad feeling for having done wrong can and does come back to haunt people in the form of unhealthy obsession and anxiety, and these sometimes manifest as ghosts.   Thus, all the sayings about karma coming back to one, or the tenet of many belief systems  that if you do bad things, they will return to you threefold, sevenfold, or more.

To be continued….

https://www.amazon.com/Jan-Olandese/e/B071FK9L75

Photo: By Frederick Augustus Hudson (B. CA. 1812) was a British spirit photographer who was active in the 1870s (http://www.photographymuseum.com/ladyhl.html) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons